


Arrhythmia

by pierrot



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Hospital, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 02:27:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29801538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pierrot/pseuds/pierrot
Summary: Working at a hospital can be kind of a drag, but Donghyuck doesn't hate it. He has his friends, and he's good at his job. Really, all he needs is to figure out how to deal with his crappy roommate, and get Mark Lee to stop using him as a substitute for his incompetent interns, all while avoiding Jaemin along the way. Then, life would be perfect.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Na Jaemin
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	Arrhythmia

Mark Lee, Super Resident, was once Mark Lee, Super Intern, and Donghyuck is sure in future he will be Mark Lee, Super Fellow. Or maybe he will just be Mark Lee, Super Doctor: the star of his own reality TV show where he flashes charming smiles to the camera while explaining how to check for cancerous moles.

Right now though, he’s just Mark Lee, Super-fucking-pain-in-Donghyuck’s-ass.

“Please, Donghyuck, I need you to do this for me. I’ll owe you big time, I promise.”

“Don’t you have interns? Where are they?”

“Well, like… I mean… Chenle and Jisung you know…”

“ _Mark_.”

“It’s hard, okay! You know what interns are like.”

Unfortunately, Donghyuck _does_ know. He spent his entire year as an intern being spectacularly annoying, and the lingering guilt is still there—buried deep, but not forgotten. It’s the only reason he didn’t bolt the moment Mark asked for his help. Life would be so much easier if he didn’t have a conscience.

Fifteen minutes later, he’s stuck at the nurses’ station, trying to sort through all the mishandled patient documentation on PowerChart while Ten unhelpfully tells him he’s getting in the way. Donghyuck would be happy to go elsewhere, but unfortunately Ten is the only person around with both half a brain and enough patience to put up with Donghyuck's questions, however reluctantly. Donghyuck needs all the help he can get. He isn’t sure what they’re teaching the kids in medical school these days, but he’s sure Chenle and Jisung are demons sent to make his life miserable. At this point, their incompetence must be intentional.

“Please tell me I was not this hopeless when I was an intern,” he whines to Ten.

Ten lifts a single, perfectly manicured eyebrow and shoots Donghyuck a cool look. “You were worse.”

“Donghyuck?”

Glancing across his left shoulder, Donghyuck catches sight of Jaemin standing a couple of metres away. He’s dressed casually, out of his scrubs, and Donghyuck feels a pang of envy knowing that he’s on his way home.

“I thought you left already?” Jaemin says.

“”Yeah, well.” Donghyuck shrugs. “Something came up.”

“Oh.”

Jaemin just sort of stands there for a little while, lingering silently, like he’s forgotten what it is he should be doing. It’s unsettling, the way Jaemin often is. Donghyuck doesn't think he means to be, but that doesn't change the fact that Jaemin's mere presence always seems to put him on edge. He's just too hard to read.

Donghyuck turns back to his work and tries to ignore him. He isn’t really in the mood to deal with Jaemin right now on top of everything else.

“Well. See you guys,” Jaemin says.

Donghyuck spares Jaemin a quick glance and nods before returning to his tablet. He’s not really focussed on what he’s seeing on the screen. Mostly he’s just waiting for Jaemin to leave. Donghyuck feels tense, his shoulders drawn up high.

“ _Asshole_ ,” he mutters, once he’s sure Jaemin is out of earshot. 

Ten stares at him, eyebrows raised. “Really?”

“He could have offered to help.”

“You think he should have offered to help you when you wouldn’t even look him in the eye for more than half a second?”

Donghyuck frowns. “Shut up.”

“Whatever, Drama Queen. Tell me when you’re done.”

\--

There’s nothing obviously detestable about Jaemin. He’s a bit slow, but he’s competent, and he’s obnoxious, but in a way most people find charming. He has a reputation throughout the hospital for being flirtatious with just about anyone—patients, nurses, even the Head of Urology on one memorable occasion—and he worms his way into Donghyuck’s friendship group within a month of his arrival.

Donghyuck doesn’t trust him.

“I don’t think you’re being fair,” Jeno says when Donghyuck tries to suggest there’s something decidedly _off_ about Jaemin. “Jaemin is just… Jaemin. He’s not that bad. You would realise that if you actually got to know him.”

Renjun isn’t so gentle. “You’re too paranoid,” he says, and that’s rich coming from the fucking King of Paranoid Conspiracy Theories. “Stop trying to make our lives more like your shitty dramas.”

“He’s weird. And annoying. He’s always sucking up to Doyoung.”

“Like you did last week when you wanted to leave early?”

“At least I had a good reason! Jaemin’s like that all the time. It’s too much.”

Renjun never agrees with him, and neither does Jeno. Ten finds Jaemin cute, Doyoung thinks he’s less irritating than Donghyuck, and Mark always just seems eager to escape whenever Donghyuck tries talking to him.

The only person who is even slightly on his side is Chenle, and Chenle is just a lowly intern. “I’m not actually sure who Jaemin is,” Chenle admits. “But Jisung is in love with him, and I’m anti-Jisung, so…” He shrugs. “Good enough.”

Donghyuck sighs. “You’ve been nothing but a disappointment to me since you got here.”

“Sorry to say this but I really don’t care.”

\--

“Has everyone checked their new roster?”

Donghyuck groans the moment Jeno finishes speaking, slumping forward to bury his head in his hands. “Don’t even speak to me about it.” 

While his head is still bowed, he hears the scrape of a chair being pulled across the floor and Renjun’s soft snort. “Donghyuck is mad because as usual he didn’t have his shit together and now he’s screwed.”

“What happened?” Jeno says.

“I forgot my sister asked me to look after her kid so she can go out with her lousy husband on their anniversary and now I’m working that day. She’s going to kill me.” Donghyuck straightens, and flashes an appeasing smile across the table. “Renjun--”

“Nope, sorry. That’s the weekend before my exams. I told you already.”

“Jeno?”

“Hm… which weekend again? Let me check.”

Donghyuck’s fleeting moment of hope is crushed when Jeno confirms he too is unavailable. “I’m on nights then,” he says, face scrunching up into a look of disdain. “I hate nights.”

“I would pick nights over clinic any day. This morning has been the worst.”

“Clinic can be pretty unbearable,” agrees Renjun.

“Really? I like clinic.”

Donghyuck hadn’t noticed Jaemin approaching their table, but he’s here now, sliding into the last free seat with his lunch in his hands.

“I can’t believe you like clinic,” he says to Jaemin, though really he can. Jaemin somehow never seems to tire of dealing with patients, no matter how annoying they are.

Jaemin shrugs. “Didn’t we become doctors to help people? Don’t you want to spend as much time as possible actually seeing patients?”

“Doesn’t change the fact that clinic fucking sucks.”

In the end, Donghyuck knows the joke will probably be on him. Jaemin is almost guaranteed to land some kind of cushy GP placement with reasonable hours while Donghyuck will have to battle his way through the Derm track. 

It’s strange to think that in a year or two, Jaemin might not be at the hospital anymore. Donghyuck might never see him again.

“Hey, Donghyuck. Don’t you have something you want to ask Jaemin?”

Donghyuck shoots Renjun an unhappy look. “No, I don’t think so.”

“Why, what is it?” asks Jaemin.

“Seriously, it’s nothing.” Donghyuck flicks his eyes across to Jaemin for half a second before looking away. “I’m just going to talk to Doyoung and try sort it out with him.”

“Donghyuck’s looking for someone to cover a shift for him,” Renjun says, rather unhelpfully Donghyuck thinks. “February 27th. Don’t look at me like that, Donghyuck. You’re kidding yourself if you think Doyoung is going to do you any favours. He’s still mad about that impersonation you did.”

Jeno frowns. “Give him a bit more credit—there’s no way he’s still upset about that. He likes Donghyuck, really.”

“You just think he likes everyone more than he actually does because he’s always nice to you,” argues Renjun.

“No, he’s right,” says Donghyuck. “I’m totally Doyoung’s secret favourite.”

“I can do it.”

Silence falls at Jaemin’s interjection. Everyone is joined together for a few seconds in mutual confusion before Donghyuck remembers what it was they were originally discussing. “Oh,” he says, suddenly feeling panicked. “Um… are you sure?”

Jaemin shrugs. “Sure. Friends do each other favours, right?”

“Right.” Donghyuck finds he can’t quite seem to look Jaemin in the eye. “Yeah, thanks.”

Under the table, Renjun kicks him. He probably deserves that.

\--

Renjun’s birthday falls during one of the rare weeks when all of them are free to go out for Friday night drinks. Donghyuck is incredibly pleased by this. His birthday is the only time Renjun allows himself to get properly drunk, unable to turn down all of the free drinks sent his way. During the previous year’s celebration, Renjun fell over four times and tried to chat up Mark without realising who he was speaking to. Donghyuck has an entire photo album dedicated to the night labelled “Precious Memories ♥ [blackmail material]”.

He’s hopeful this year can top the last when he sees Renjun talking to Jaehyun, the very attractive nurse he’s been crushing on for the better part of a year. A successful hook-up will definitely be a coup, and one Donghyuck plans to take credit for. After all, he was the one who told Mark to bring Jaehyun along.

“Our boy Renjun might finally score himself a hot boyfriend,” Donghyuck crows as he slides into the booth where Jeno and Jaemin are seated. “My matchmaking skills remain flawless.”

“You literally did nothing,” says Jeno.

“I got Jaehyun here, I got Renjun drunk. It’s a fine art, matchmaking. You can’t be too pushy about it; you just gotta set up the pieces and let nature take it’s course.”

“I’m not sure you should be celebrating,” Jaemin interjects. “I was over there before. Renjun’s only talking to Jaehyun because Jaehyun said he doesn’t believe in ghosts, and now Renjun is trying to change his mind.”

“Damn.” Donghyuck’s shoulders slump. “Poor Renjun. Such a promising young man crippled by his inability to stop being such a big fucking nerd. When will he ever find his true Prince Charming?”

“I’d say right about now,” offers Jeno. “Jaehyun just stuck his tongue down Renjun’s throat.”

Donghyuck turns to see that Renjun and Jaehyun are indeed now all over each other. “Ugh,” he says, turning back. “I am definitely not drunk enough for that much PDA. I’ll be back.”

He doesn’t realise Jaemin is following him until he reaches the bar.

“You’re getting something too?” he says, looking across his shoulder at Jaemin, now standing beside him. Donghyuck isn’t drunk, but he’s tipsy enough to feel friendly, and he still owes Jaemin for the shift cover. “Let me buy. What do you want?”

Jaemin tries to politely decline, but Donghyuck is insistent and used to getting his way. A few minutes later, he passes a tequila sunrise over into Jaemin’s waiting hands, and doesn’t even say anything about how terrible a choice it is. “A small thank you,” he says, “for helping me out last month.”

Jaemin looks surprised. “Huh,” he says. “So you can be nice.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but you’re kind of an asshole sometimes.”

Donghyuck isn’t drunk enough for PDA—he definitely isn’t drunk enough for startling revelations or unwanted confrontation.

On the other hand, he isn’t sober enough to keep from saying anything.

“I thought you were the one who said we were friends?”

Jaemin shrugs. “We could be friends,” he says. “I haven’t decided yet.”

Donghyuck doesn’t like how that sounds. “Let’s just go back.”

He’s stopped before he gets too far by Jaemin’s hand suddenly holding onto his arm. “I didn’t mean that,” Jaemin says. “I think we should be. Friends, I mean.”

Donghyuck considers him for a moment. Jaemin looks surprisingly sincere.

“Sure,” he says. “Whatever.”

\--

Everyone knows Donghyuck is living with the roommate from hell. Mostly because he won’t shut up about it.

“Maybe I should move in here,” he muses, lying back on one of the couches in the on-call room. “It would cut down on the travel time. Do you think anyone would notice?”

The look Mark gives him is faintly exasperated. “Donghyuck. Just talk to your roommate.”

“Don’t you think I’ve tried? He doesn’t listen to anything I say. He still doesn’t get that my job isn’t 9-5 so sometimes I need to be up making food in the middle of the night. You know he tried to make me pay more than half of the electricity bill because apparently I use more than him? Like his lazy ass doesn’t put his clothes in the dryer all the time.”

“Yes, you told me,” Mark says through gritted teeth. “Twice already. Look, if you’re not going to work things out, you should just move out already.”

Donghyuck snorts. “Yeah, sure. I can totally afford a decent one-bedroom place in this city. Get real, Mark.”

“Then find someone to live with. You know, I heard—”

“Don’t.”

“What?” Mark frowns. “I was just going to say that Jaemin—”

Donghyuck groans loudly, cutting Mark off. “Why does everyone keep telling me to move in with Jaemin? Can’t a man just vent in peace without people trying to offer their unhelpful solutions?”

“I don’t see what your problem is. Jaemin has a spare room, he’ll probably let you use it. What’s the harm in asking?”

So much, Donghyuck wants to say. Mark won’t understand. He seems to pass through life oblivious to all the backbiting and tension passing around him. He’s never experienced what it’s like to have someone cosy up to him for months only to turn cold and jealous once they’ve been passed over for an important opportunity.

Living with a coworker is a terrible idea. Living with Jaemin, when they’re not really friends and Donghyuck still feels uneasy around him, is out of the question. Even asking him feels too much. Donghyuck has done a pretty good job of avoiding Jaemin since Renjun’s birthday. Their interactions are just too awkward for him to bear.

Mark sighs and gets to his feet. “Seriously, Donghyuck, stop being stubborn and talk to Jaemin. There’s no way he can be any worse than what you’ve got going now.”

\--

Really, Donghyuck thinks, Jaemin’s princely smile and admittedly handsome face are completely wasted on someone who is so fucking _weird_. 

He tries to tell Jaemin as much, but Jaemin just latches onto the part where Donghyuck calls him attractive and makes a bunch of terrifying facial expressions that really only serve to prove Donghyuck’s point.

They all should have realised something was off the moment they learned about Jaemin’s coffee order. That much caffeine goes beyond unnatural and straight into the realm of deeply unsettling. But back then it was passed off as a strange quirk, like Renjun’s UFO theories or Donghyuck’s collection of Mark photos, and now Donghyuck is sharing an apartment with someone who might be legitimately unhinged.

“Tell me why you guys are living together again?” Renjun says as he skims through patient files, sounding completely uninterested in actually hearing the answer.

“Don’t say ‘living together’, that sounds way too…”

“Domestic?” Renjun supplies. “And what would you call it then?”

“A mutually beneficial arrangement between friends.”

“Oh sure. That totally sounds better.”

“Don’t be gross. You know my old roommate was a total nightmare and Jaemin was the only person with a spare room. Which is weird in itself—who can even afford to have a spare room on our salary?”

“Chenle,” Renjun immediately counters. Which is true, but no way is Donghyuck going to live with an intern.

“So what you’re telling me,” Renjun says, putting aside his tablet for a second, “is that you swapped one crappy roommate for another? Except nothing you’ve told me about Jaemin has sounded all that terrible.”

Donghyuck doesn’t know why he keeps going to Renjun with his problems expecting him to be supportive.

“He woke me up yesterday. He fully came into my room, without permission, and shook me awake even though it was my day off and I wanted to sleep. Who the hell does that?”

Jaemin actually sat on the side of Donghyuck’s bed and gently nudged his shoulder a few times until he stirred. After Donghyuck got over the shock of waking up to Jaemin’s face hovering over him, Jaemin passed him over a mug of tea and asked him if he wanted breakfast. Jaemin had made extra.

It ended up being a nice day. Jaemin was a good cook, and after breakfast was done they ended up on the couch watching Donghyuck’s favourite romcoms until they both fell asleep. Jaemin didn't even complain when Donghyuck drooled on his shirt. Not much, anyway.

“What’s up with you?” Renjun says, bringing Donghyuck back out of his state of reminiscing.

“What?”

“You totally just spaced out for a minute there. You looked kind of… dreamy. Like you were thinking about something really good.”

Donghyuck stares at Renjun, struck silent and vaguely horrified.

“It was creepy,” Renjun says.

The tension lifts from Donghyuck’s shoulders and he rolls his eyes. “Like you can talk. How many times have I caught you staring at Jaehyun when you think no one’s looking? _That’s_ creepy.”

“… Shut up.”

\--

Four months into The Great Jaemin-Donghyuck Loving and Living Together Experiment, as Jaemin has taken to calling it, everyone has gotten so sick of Donghyuck’s moaning that they start begging him to either shut up or move out already. Even Taeyong in Paediatrics, whom Donghyuck adores because he tends to baby him like one of his patients, gives up on being supportive. He looks Donghyuck dead in the eyes one day and says, “If you’re here to talk about Jaemin, I don’t want to hear it.”

Donghyuck refuses to move out just to please other people, and he knows how tough it is to find decent accommodation near the hospital. Jaemin, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to see any problem with the way things are. “Why would Donghyuck move out?” he says, completely blank-faced. “We get along great. Donghyuck and I are totally perfect.”

He sort of undercuts the sentiment immediately afterwards by going on to explain all of the ways in which Donghyuck isn’t so perfect.

There is one story from those early months of living together that Donghyuck never shares. It’s not his story to tell.

It’s a Saturday night in the middle of June, when everyone else is either working or busy, and Jaemin and Donghyuck are left alone in their apartment with nothing to do. They decide to stay in; Jaemin cooks dinner, and Donghyuck picks a movie. Neither of them can be bothered to move off the couch when it ends, so Donghyuck flicks through the channels until he gets bored enough to leave something running.

It’s a classic sports drama, a story of underdogs and teamwork and heartache. One of the star players goes down at the climax, and Donghyuck murmurs his predicted diagnosis at the screen while the camera cuts between close-ups of horrified faces.

He’s too busy assessing the accuracy of the ensuing hospital scenes to pay much attention to Jaemin beside him. He doesn’t notice how Jaemin, usually the first to loudly decry any unrealistic elements, is oddly silent until he isn’t.

“I hurt my back in high school.”

Jaemin stares straight ahead as he speaks, his profile lit by eerie blue light. Noise from the TV continues to fill the room, but Donghyuck barely notices it.

“Nothing like…” Jaemin trails off, waving a hand vaguely towards the TV screen. “It was a herniated disc. I had to get surgery.”

“How old?” Donghyuck asks.

“Seventeen.”

Jaemin explains then how hard it was: missing school, going through rehab, his fear that something would go wrong. What strikes Donghyuck the most is how even his voice remains while he speaks. He doesn’t waver once.

“The staff were all so nice to me while I was there,” Jaemin says. “That’s when I decided I wanted to become a surgeon.”

The admission surprises Donghyuck. It’s the first time he’s heard anything about Jaemin wanting to go into surgery, but he supposes he never cared enough to find out about Jaemin’s future plans. He definitely never picked Jaemin as the surgery type. Jaemin strikes him as a little too soft, too easily drained by the regular demands the hospital makes of them.

Saying any of that doesn’t feel like the right response. All of them are painfully aware their ambitions can only take them so far. Medicine is never that easy. Insecurity plagues every admission of their true desires.

So instead he slides across the couch to where Jaemin is seated and leans against him, head dropping to rest on one of Jaemin’s bony shoulders. When he reaches for Jaemin’s hand, Jaemin lets him take it.

They sit in silence for a while, watching the drama on the TV play out in front of them. “Do you want to turn it off?” Donghyuck asks.

“No,” says Jaemin. “I want to see the happy ending.”

\--

**Jaemin [5:47pm]**  
Almost done?

**Donghyuck [5:48pm]**  
5 minutes

**Jaemin [5:50pm]**  
I’m at the supermarket now. Tell me what you want for dinner. I’ll cook.

**Donghyuck [5:50pm]**  
kimchi jjigae!  
♥♥

**Donghyuck [5:58pm]**  
lol nvm  
see you in an hour

\--

Escaping the hospital on time is never an easy feat. Patients don’t exactly schedule their sudden complications. Shitty bosses who hand off their tasks and think unpaid overtime is simply an expected part of the job don’t help. Making any sort of plan feels like asking to be disappointed.

It still sucks. Exhausted, Donghyuck drags himself over to one of the empty meeting rooms so he can hide out and finish off his paperwork in peace. It’s been a long day.

“Hey.”

Donghyuck looks up to find Jaemin standing in the doorway, holding two bubble teas in his hands. One of them looks like it could be Donghyuck’s usual order.

“Did you turn your phone off? I’ve been trying to find you.”

He did, just for ten minutes. It’s a risk he was willing to take. “How did you know I was here?”

“Renjun knows all your hiding spots.” Jaemin crosses the room and passes Donghyuck his drink. “He was right: you look terrible.”

Donghyuck takes a grateful sip and the hit of sugar is an energy boost sorely needed. “Why’d you come back?” he asks. He hopes it’s nothing that will hold Jaemin up for long. He still wants his kimchi jjigae, and maybe a beer, and maybe a movie. None of that will be as enjoyable if he’s alone.

Still standing in front of Donghyuck, Jaemin frowns at him as though he’s confused. “I thought you might want Gong Cha.”

He takes a seat, next to Donghyuck, and shifts across so they’re almost touching. “Do you want me to help?”

Donghyuck hands over his tablet. “You type. I’ll tell you what to put.”

Jaemin is incredulously slow at typing, to the point where it’s almost impressive. Doing things this way takes at least twice as long as it would have if Donghyuck had just done everything himself. But he doesn’t mind. He can stand staying at the hospital a little longer if he has Jaemin for company, and he knows that soon enough they’ll be going home.

\--

“Guess what? I heard Doyoung has a boyfriend.”

Donghyuck is feeling smug when he makes his announcement to everyone at lunch. It’s been ages since they’ve had any good gossip to dissect. The last time was when Jaemin claimed one of the fellows in oncology was cheating on his wife with a resident and planned to leave her.

As it turned out, Jaemin had wildly misheard and misinterpreted some crucial details. There was no affair. The fellow didn’t even have a wife.

Sadly for Donghyuck, the reception his news gets is disappointingly muted. Renjun offers a mildly interested hum, but doesn’t bother to look up from the notes he’s reading. Jeno says nothing at all.

Jaemin eyes Donghyuck warily, never ready to accept anything he says at face value. “How do you know?” he asks.

“Chenle told me. You know they live in the same neighbourhood? He said he saw Doyoung at the supermarket with someone.”

“Could be a friend,” argues Jaemin. “And since when do you talk to Chenle?”

“Of course I talk to Chenle. I’m friends with all of the interns.”  
  
Jaemin makes a noise that could be a laugh. It’s obnoxious and annoying, and Donghyuck ignores it. He instead turns his attention to Jeno, who Donghyuck notes has been suspiciously quiet this entire time.

“Okay, spill,” he says.

“Hm?”

“Oh, don’t play innocent. You’re a terrible liar, Jeno Lee. I know Doyoung takes you out for coffee all the time, and people are always spilling their secrets to you. You totally know something, and I for one want to hear it.”

“I don’t! Doyoung hasn’t said anything to me,” protests Jeno. He’s great at looking deeply wronged, but Donghyuck knows better. “I just heard some rumours, that’s all. But you know what rumours are like.”

“Yeah, they’re usually true,” replies Donghyuck, conveniently ignoring how false the last set of rumours turned out to be.

“Oh?”

Jeno shifts forward, looking a little too devious for Donghyuck’s liking. “So then I should believe the rumours about you and Jaemin?”

Donghyuck freezes. “What rumours?”

“Oh, you know. Chenle’s been running around saying he saw you guys all over each other in the on-call room last Thursday.”

Silence hangs in the air for a long moment. Jaemin coughs. Donghyuck doesn’t know what to say.

“You motherfucker,” Renjun exclaims, looking up from his notes for the first time since Donghyuck entered the room. His eyes are wide with righteous indignation. “I can’t believe this shit.”

“Renjun, don’t swear,” Jaemin says mildly.

Renjun pays him no attention. “I’ve had to put up with you bitching and moaning about Jaemin for two years, and now suddenly you want to bone him?”

“Who said anything about _boning_?”

Jaemin looks over at Donghyuck. “Oh, so you don’t think I’m sexy?”

His tone is offended, but his eyes are twinkling too much for anyone to believe he’s truly upset. Donghyuck scowls at him. “Shut up. You’re not helping.”

“Oh, don’t think I’m not pissed at you too,” Renjun says, turning to Jaemin. “All year it’s been ‘Renjun, why did I let him move in with me? Renjun, this is all your fault. Renjun, I’m going to kill him.’”

“I still want to kill him.”

From across the table, Donghyuck offers Jaemin a kissy-face. “Right back at you.”

Jaeemin winks and wiggles his eyebrows suggestively. Renjun groans.

“Gross,” says Jeno. “I don’t like this.”

“Fucking agreed,” says Renjun.

Donghyuck turns his focus to Jeno, happy to have a new target to take attention away from his alleged relationship with Jaemin. “Don’t be jealous, Jeno,” he says, getting up from his chair. He’s ready to launch a full-scale attack. “I’ll still give you all the loving you need.”

Jeno is not very aggressive by nature, but he’s still a lot stronger than Donghyuck, and Donghyuck leaps at him too quickly to keep his balance. It only takes a shove and a moment of lost footing for Donghyuck to end up on the floor.

When he opens his eyes, Jaemin is hovering over him.

“That looked painful,” he remarks.

“No shit.”

“Want me to kiss it better?”

Donghyuck grins.

\--

On the other side of the hospital, Chenle and Jisung sit down for lunch.

“I swear, they were all over each other,” Chenle says. “It was so… _ugh_. But also kinda cute, I guess.”

“Wow, really?”

“Oh yeah. I knew there was something going on with them. You should listen to me more often.”

Chenle pauses to take a bite of his sandwich. Happily, while still chewing, he continues: “So that means so far we know about Donghyuck and Jaemin, Doyoung’s mysterious boyfriend, Jeno’s not-so-secret crush… who else? Oh yeah, Ten used to have a thing with that tall guy in Urology.”

“Ten and _Johnny_?”

“That’s right.” Chenle puts his sandwich down and looks over at Jisung with a definite air of superiority. “See, what did I tell you? This hospital is totally just like how they are in dramas.”

Jisung nods slowly. “Huh,” he says. “I guess you were right.”


End file.
